Flame signed with Microsoft certs

Microsoft has issued an emergency patch revoking digital certificates used to sign the Flame malware.

The patch revoked three intermediate Microsoft certificates used in active attacks to “spoof content, perform phishing attacks, or perform man-in-the-middle attacks”.

Microsoft also killed off certificates that were usable for code signing via Microsoft’s Terminal Services licensing certification authority (CA) that ultimately “chained up” to the Microsoft Root Authority.

The authority issued certificates for users to authorise Remote Desktop services in their enterprises.

Flame (Worm.Win32.Flame) had existed since 2010 and spread via removable media, according to the CERT, and by exploiting a patched Microsoft printer hole -- the same tapped by Stuxnet. It contained a backdoor and trojan and had worm-like features, allowing it to replicate in a local network and on removable media if it is commanded so.

Components of the sophisticated Flame malware were signed by the certificates using “an older cryptography algorithm [that] could be exploited and then be used to sign code as if it originated from Microsoft”, Microsoft security response centre senior director Mike Reavey said in an advisory.

The bugged algorithm “provided certificates with the ability to sign code, thus permitting code to be signed as if it came from Microsoft”.

“Now things may make sense with the Flame hoopla: It used the fake, but ‘valid’, MSFT certificate,” SANS Institute chief research officer Joannes Ullrich said in a tweet.

The bulletin did not specify who accessed the certificates.

The thumbprints of the untrusted certificates: